“Contrary to the breathless assertions that climate change is behind every weather event, in Australia, the floods are not bigger, the bushfires are not worse, the droughts are not deeper or longer, and the cyclones are not more severe than they were in the 1800s,” he said on Monday.

“Sometimes, they do more damage but that’s because there’s more to destroy, not because their intensity has increased.

“More than 100 years of photography at Manly Beach in my electorate does not suggest that sea levels have risen despite frequent reports from climate alarmists that this is imminent.”

During his speech, Mr Abbott also said climate-change policy had a negative impact to the economy.

“Environmentalism has managed to combine a post-socialist instinct for big government with a post-Christian nostalgia for making sacrifices in a good cause,” he said.

“Primitive people once killed goats to appease the volcano gods.”

The speech comes as the Turnbull government appears to be ditching clean energy targets as recommended by Chief Scientist Alan Finkel.